Bernard Schoenburg: City payroll a hot topic in Ward 7 race

That’s one lesson I took from a forum last week that featured 10 aldermanic candidates from four Springfield wards. The event was sponsored by the Historic West Side Neighborhood Association.

JOE McMENAMIN, a lawyer who nearly won an aldermanic seat in 1995 and ran for Congress in 2008, got things going when he took off after highly paid firefighters.

“I don’t mean to be picking on the firemen, and three of my strongest supporters are old-time firemen who remember what the starting pay used to be 40, 50 years ago,” McMenamin said. “I’ve got the city payroll right here, and some people are staggered by that.”

Statistics from 2009 showed that only one person working for city police – the chief — made more than $100,000 annually, McMenamin said, but 20 firefighters were in that category. (By McMenamin’s numbers, 78 City Water, Light & Power employees also were paid in that range.)

“There’s something wrong with a fire department that can pay that kind of salaries,” McMenamin said. “The taxpayers can’t afford it, and it has to be cleaned up. And someone’s got to take on some powerful interests. But guess what — of the 200 firemen, one-half of them now live outside the city. They don’t get to vote.”

Another Ward 7 candidate, JOHN LAURENZANA, director of marketing for the Capitol Care Center nursing home, showed he could get agitated too, but he took aim at city spokesmen — although he exaggerated when he said “every department’s got its own spokesperson.”

“The mayor’s office has a spokesperson,” Laurenzana said. “The mayor is the spokesperson. Why do you have a spokesperson and pay them?”

With an umpire-like gesture, Laurenzana said of mayoral spokesman Ernie Slottag, “You’re gone.”

Slottag — not at the event — told me later that the late Mayor TIM DAVLIN laid off the civilian spokesman for the police department, and the fire department has a sworn firefighter who handles questions only about fires and other public safety incidents.

The city has only three public information officers, he said — himself, AMBER SABIN at CWLP and JEFF BERG, who is paid by hotel-motel tax money (not from the corporate fund) to handle tourism publicity.

As communications director, Slottag also handles Web content, and two TV stations — public access and the government channel. He and Sabin also cover for each other’s vacation time.

“There is not a cadre of PIOs (public information officers) in every department,” Slottag said.
Back at the forum, Laurenzana also said he’d go after “appointed politicos” who make more than in the private sector. Laurenzana said he would lower their pay and set benchmarks for performance.

“And if you don’t meet those benchmarks enough, you’re gone, and we’ll bring in somebody who will do the job right.”

Laurenzana was also rough on public works types, saying “half the time, the people that are driving down their own street end up sliding down through a pothole that’s caused by a snow plow and plowing into another car. And that same person has to pay an auto mechanic shop to fix that car. In both cases, the city’s directly responsible for its infrastructure.”

Ah, but Laurenzana added, “I stand arm in arm with police and fire. We’re not going to cut police and fire.”

McMenamin said three retired firefighters have urged him to talk about departmental pay. He named one example, saying that a friend, PHIL HARRIS, was paid more than $150,000 in 2009.
Harris, 55, who wasn’t at the forum, retired as a battalion chief in 2009 after 27 years. He told me later that, while he supported McMenamin for Ward 10 alderman in 1995, he’s not involved in any political races this year. Harris also said he isn’t one of those urging McMenamin to speak about this issue.

Harris told me his final base salary was $94,096, not counting overtime. His payout for unused vacation, which can be banked only for two years, was $17,318, and unused sick time for his 27 years totaled $45,221. The total payout, if spread over 27 years, came to $2,316 annually, he said.

And Harris said he donated more than $25,000 to charity in 2009, including more than $15,000 to his church and $500 to buy the fire department a couple of computer monitors.

“If we’re going to lay all this out, then we’re going to need to understand they’re getting more for their money than just what they see in the line item,” Harris said.

McMenamin did say that five of the 20 firefighters who were paid over $100,000 in 2009 received payouts for unused sick or vacation time upon retirement.

Let’s not forget the third candidate in Ward 7 — MICHAEL HIGGINS, owner/chef of Maldaner’s Restaurant.

Higgins didn’t inject himself into the firefighter debate.

“They can argue about firefighter salaries all they want,” Higgins said. “The bottom line is none of us have been on the city council, and none of us know the true issue other than what we see looking in.”

Candidates were given most questions in advance, so Higgins read most of his responses. That, shall we say, made him less of a force.

But asked an audience-generated question about revitalization, Higgins got downright poetic, talking about how far downtown has come over the years.

In the summer, he said, “you see landscaped businesses, you see people outside enjoying dinner.”

“I want to bring that same sense of community to Ward 7 and its neighborhoods,” he said.
Higgins said he wrote out his answers because “I can get off track real easy,” which wouldn’t fit the two-minute limits on answers.

Hey, lose the script. Take a risk.

None of the aldermanic races have enough candidates, as does the mayor’s race, to have a Feb. 22 primary. So Election Day for aldermen won’t come until the general election April 5.

What’s in a name?
Another week, another big fundraiser at Knights of Columbus Council 364.

Oops! Can’t say it that way any more, at least in advertisements. That’s why newspaper ads for MIKE COFFEY JR.’s event, which drew hundreds to the location Thursday evening, said the site was “Columbian Hall” at 2200 S. Meadowbrook Road. But ads for an event there eight days earlier for another mayoral candidate, MIKE FARMER, called the location the “Knights of Columbus.”

MIKE HOUSTON, a third candidate for mayor who will use the same facility for a gathering within a couple weeks, will have to use the “Columbian Hall” name too.

Here’s the deal. DAVID GROESCH, a Springfield audiologist, is about six months into his term as Grand Knight of Council 364. The group has long had a rule that political gatherings shouldn’t use the Knights of Columbus name. Since he has been Grand Knight, a rule to that effect has been included in rental contracts for the large hall. Both that room and Casey’s Pub, also in the building, are owned by the Columbian Home Association, a for-profit group associated with the K of C.

Groesch prefers not to say who he personally supports for mayor, but he did say he personally rented the hall for the Farmer event as an in-kind donation. However, he forgot to pass along the name rule to the Farmer folks, and he heard about it from someone on the K of C’s state supreme council.

“I’m still learning,” Groesch said. He said the rule was loosely enforced until recently.

As a side note, Davlin, also a past Grand Knight of Council 364, had some monster fundraisers at the facility.

Meanwhile, a smaller-scale fundraiser was held last week for mayoral candidate FRANK KUNZ at, dare I say it, Knights of Columbus Council 4175 on the north end. Kunz said more than 100 people attended, and he raised close to $3,000 even before the event began.

One of the guests happened to be a first cousin of Kunz — Ward 4 Ald. FRANK LESKO. Lesko is a Republican precinct committeeman, and Coffey, not Kunz, has the support of the local GOP.
Lesko agreed that puts him in an uncomfortable position.

However, Lesko said, “Family’s family.”

New job for Burnham
SCOTT BURNHAM, who was director of communications for former state Treasurer ALEXI GIANNOULIAS, has joined the Chicago-based communications firm Serafin & Associates.
Burnham, 44, of Oak Park, worked on Giannoulias campaigns for state treasurer in 2006 and U.S. Senate last year. He earlier worked for Cook County Clerk DAVID ORR.

“He has an impeccable reputation and I’m excited to have him on my team,” said THOM SERAFIN, founder of the firm.

Burnham was always helpful and a gentleman, even in the midst of his former boss’s trying campaign for Senate.

Bernard Schoenburg is political columnist for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached at 788-1540 or bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.

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